Month: March 2017

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Old vs New: What happens when media dies? 

This piece intends to explore what happens when old media forms are supplanted with new media technologies. It examines the reasons for these shifts and the effects of evolving media, upon both the individual and the industry.

The displacement of media artefacts is a given when new media technologies arise. This is seen with the marginalisation of the record for the tape, the tape for the CD, the CD for the mp3, as well as the trade from VCR to DVD, or floppy disc to USB – the transposition of media artefacts with their updated counterparts is commonplace. But who does it affect, when these technologies are replaced? As marketing academic Jan Verloop asserts, although there may be an initial ‘fight back of the old technologies,’ as new media technologies develop, ‘many companies with the old technology will die as a consequence’ (Verloop, 2004). This piece intends to explore the effects of displacing old media with new technologies, and the consequent evolution of the photographic industry.

Mike Gillam is a renowned fine art nature photographer. His longstanding position within the photographic community has afforded Gillam with a wealth of knowledge across both film and digital photography, as he has practiced professionally with both. As such, I reached out to Gillam to find out was it was like to make the shift to digital photography as a professional photographer, what this shift meant for others in the industry, and whether he believed the transition was a positive change.

The resultant film speaks not only to the impact that the digital age of photography has had upon Gillam personally, but also to the effect it had on his fellow photographers, and the industry as a whole.

The piece furthermore responds to media theory, namely that put forth by academic Bob Seidensticker, who posits that developments in media technologies drive a consequent adaptation in the way people interact with the evolved media form (Seidensticker, 2006). This concept is reflected in the piece as Gillam states that he now takes an ‘endless’ number of photos, as, with the affordances of digital photography, he is able to now use photography as a mode of artistic experimentation, and a medium that allows numerous shots in the quest for perfection – pursuits prohibited by film. Thus, the advent of a new photographic technology changed the way the medium was approached and interacted with, and this serves as just one example of what media academic David Thorburn expounds as new media technology’s ability to generate ‘profound changes in our political, social, and aesthetic experience.’  

The focus of the piece is Gillam’s story, as such, I have intentionally left the audio track without backing music, and kept the accompanying visuals minimal and slow. The subject of the film’s visuals is an old Minolta X700, a quality SLR that was discontinued in 1999 – replaced with the newer, more automated Minolta Maxxum 7000 (Photoxels, 2015). The camera thereby reflects the story being told by Gillam, and affirms the history of technological displacement rife within the media industry. Similarly, the film’s lighting consists largely of red, green and blue flashing lights; the incorporation of RBG colouring signifying the shift into the digital age.

 

Reference List

Biro, M 2012, ‘From Analogue to Digital Photography: Bernd and Hilla Becher and Andreas Gursky,’ History of Photography, vol. 36, no. 3, p. 353 – 366, accessed 23 March 2017, Taylor and Francis Online.

Gustavson, T, 2009 Camera: A History Of Photography From Daguerreotype To Digital, Sterling Innovation, USA.

Jenkins, H 2006, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York University Press, USA.

Photoxels 2015, A Brief History of Minolta Cameras, web, accessed 23 March 2017, www.photoxels.com/history_minolta.html.

Slater, M 2001, ‘Soon Digital Photography Will Rule,’ Fortune, vol. 144, no. 10, p43-43, accessed 24 March 2017, EBSCOhost.

Seidensticker, B 2006, Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc, USA.

Thorburn, D, & Jenkins, H 2004, Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition, MIT Press, USA.

Verloop, J 2004, Insight in Innovation: Managing Innovation by Understanding the Laws of Innovation, Elsevier B.V., USA.  

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1. Introduction by Matt Manning • You’re All I Need To Get By – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
2. Introduction by Alec Wilson • Meme in the Mirror – Gyrotron
3. Introduction by James Mountain • Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
4. Introduction by Vikky Orfanos • Fire – Nina Kraviz
5. Introduction by Harry Heyworth • Florence (Ft. Kwes) – Loyle Carner
6. Introduction by Cuba Laughlin-Nimarota • Gimme Chocolate – BabyMetal
7. Introduction by Aidan Tai-Jones • HeyYa – OutKast
8. Introduction by Han Nguyen • Inspector Norse – Todd Terje

 

analog music is more meaningful

mixtape
ˈmɪksteɪp/
noun
a compilation of favourite pieces of music, typically by many different artists, recorded on to tape or another medium, and personalised by an individual.

Mixtapes work to curate a message, with the process of developing a mixtape existing as an inherently connected process. It holds a unique place in the media landscape as a way of subverting the dominant capitalist landscape; their very presence as a copied tape works to undermine any commercial agendas that go beyond independent music production, existing as a way of sharing music purely for the sake of sharing, and compiling music through which to channel expression. This is a notion affirmed by musical academic David Rando, as he refers to the mixtape as a ‘heterotopic space capable of constellating music from disparate times and places into configurations that long to disorder the given forms of capitalist music’ (Rando, 2016).

This has led it to hold a particularly important place in media history. The mixtape has historically been a way of distributing the prohibited. The act of copying something to tape, or burning it to CD has become symbolic of this; synonymous with sharing, and affecting people and change. Innate within the mixtape is the expectation of emotional connection, be it personal or political.

‘To me, making a tape is like writing a letter—there’s a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention… and then you’ve got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch …oh, there are loads of rules.’  – Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity

A mixtape demands attention and planning; and such an intensive process of creation inherently endows the mixtape with meaning.

This meaning can be seen beyond the personal messages represented within this piece, as philosophy academic Jared Ball frames the mixtape within its broader social context, describing it as ‘part of a powerful underground mass press and source of cultural expression’ (Ball, 2007). The mixtape was truly established during the 1970s, as disc-jockeys utilised the medium as a form of communication that circumvented traditional mass media. Thus, the potential of mixtapes, as Ball asserts, enables them to be categorised as ‘resistance media,’ and consequently, a source of ‘emancipatory journalism.’ (Ball, 2007)

The mixtape I created focusses on the personal significance of mixtapes, as it centres on the individual, their connection to their chosen and its meaning to them. The personal introductions recorded for this project were intended to illustrate the tangible connection intrinsic to the mixtape medium; each dedication was unique and separate from the next, each with their own particular significance to the speaker. The choice to include 8 tracks in the Dedications Mixtape is an allusion to the 8-track, which arguably permitted the creation of the first mixtapes as audio media became more accessible to the average consumer. While the project exists in a tangible disc format with printed cover, the digital submission presented here is testament to the limitations of creating mixtapes within the online environment, as there are no popular sites that allow the combination of commercial music, independent recordings, and personal audio into one playlist; i.e. a mixtape. Online, although playlists exist, the concept of a personalised mixtape fails to subsist.

 

Reference List

Ball, J 2007, ‘FreeMix Radio – The Original Mixtape Radio Show: A Case Study in Mixtape “Radio” and Emancipatory Journalism,’ Journal of Black Studies, vol. 39, no. 4, p. 614-634, accessed 23 March 2017, SAGE Journals.

Cummings, A 2013, Democracy of Sounds: Music Piracy and the Remaking of the American Copyright in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, UK.

Hornby, N 1995, High Fidelity, Victor Gollancz Ltd, UK.

Moore, T 2004, Mix Tape: The Art of Cassette Culture, University of Michigan, USA.

Rando, D 2016, ‘The Mixtape as Wishtape: Heterotopia, Translation, and Nostalgia,’ Hope and Wish Image in Music Technology, p. 65-90, accessed 25 March 2017, SpringerLink.   

Yochin, C & Biddinger, M 2008, ‘It kind of gives you that vintage feel’: vinyl records and the trope of death, University of Michigan, USA. 

 

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old media is redundant media – reframing how we view old media

 

The subject of this film is the zoetrope; one of the earliest forms of the motion picture. It works through the basic principles of animation. The zoetrope spins at twelve frames per second, and the brain interprets the spinning stills through the moments of darkness created by the zoetrope slits, creating the illusion of movement.

This film was created to be beautiful; to bring into question the supposed redundancy of old film techniques. Presenting the zoetrope in a cinematic way illustrates its beauty and validity as a media form, pushing against the supposed redundancy that accompanies older media technologies. The piece furthermore illustrates its connection to modern film techniques, through the modern mode by which it has been recorded, and alludes to older film technologies through the use of a projector tick as the backing track, thereby bringing the viewer’s attention to the zoetrope as a film form, automatically relating it to other film technologies. The use of red lipstick was an homage to the makeup of 1920s silent films, intended to evoke classic imagery of old Hollywood glamour and further reinforce the zoetrope as a valid part of the history of film technology.

Seminal philosopher, Martin Heidegger, argues that ‘the essence of technology is revealing’ (Heidegger, 1977). Media technologies achieve precisely this; their cultural space is dedicated to revealing the world through representations – projections on a screen (Loon, 2008). Although we speak about digital technologies supplanting analogue, as film is replaced by pixels, academic David Thorburn commits to the notion that rather than view old media as redundant media, we should reframe our thinking to understand older technology within its broader historical context. For example, while ‘specific delivery technologies (the eight-track cassette, say, or wax cylinder) may become moribund, the medium of recorded sound survives’ (Thorburn, 2004).

Further, media historian Brian Winston, states that assertions of a ‘media revolution,’ created by the advent of popular digital technologies, are unfounded. The road to digital has been long paved by the technology that came before it, and all we are simply developing new media techniques by building upon the knowledge of technology we already have (Winston, 1998). While the dispute between film and digital video are near constant, both arguably achieve the same outcome, and may coexist in the film landscape simultaneously.

Indeed, as Winston suggests, all technology is simply new ways of doing the same old thing. The zoetrope created for this project illustrates this idea: it delivers the viewer a moving image. Hence, while technology has certainly advanced since the zoetrope’s creation, the basic outcome remains the same. The piece thus highlights the connections between primitive motion picture technologies and analogue film, as well as digital recording. It simultaneously illustrates precisely how far film technologies have come, whilst reinforcing the notion that while technology has evolved, the basic principles of motion picture have not. While emerging technologies may diminish the popularity of some older techniques, they are simply occupying the cultural space of their media ancestors. (Winston, 1998)

 

Reference List

Heidegger, M 1977, The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays, Harper and Row, USA.

Loon, J 2008, Media Technology: Critical Perspectives, Open University Press, USA.

Thorburn, D, Jenkins, H 2004, Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition, MIT Press, USA.

Winston, B 1998, Media, Technology and Society – A History: From the Telegraph to the Internet, Routledge, UK.

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Debate Day – Is streaming killing the music industry?

On the negative team, we categorised arguments regarding the consumer, the artist, and the industry, as follows:

 

The Consumer:

• Free streaming allows widespread access to consumers
• Allows consumers to find music they wouldn’t regularly be exposed to, as well as suggesting new music in their preferred genre
• Affordable
• Ease of access

The Artist:

• Affords the artist an accessible platform for their music, unlike the old system of trying to get radio play
• Offers bands/artists more exposure, and to people all around the world.
• Larger audience – greater chance of being discovered by both consumers and record companies
• A small artist wouldn’t usually get any plays, streaming services allow a way into an industry that has historically been very closed.
• Demographics and analytics allow artists and companies to track their largest listening demographics and target these demographics by playing shows in these areas – benefitting the listeners and the artists.

The Industry:

• Streaming has increased overall listening and engagement with the industry
• Streaming has broadened the industry and made it accessible
• As streaming allows people to listen to music online for free, the need for piracy has lessened, ensuring artists and companies are paid for their work – and that it is accessible for all. Streaming filled the hole in the industry between radio and purchase that aided piracy, thereby benefitting the industry overall.

If it weren’t benefitting these groups, why would they be using it?

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Artists working with early/experimental photographic processes –

• Botanical cyanotypes – Anna Atkins – 1833 – first book of photographs ever – recording shapes and forms
• Rayograph – Man Ray – photogram – surrealist movement, Dada etc. – removes dimension – deals w/shadowms
• Solarising – exposing to light while developing – glows
• Laslo Moholy-Nagy – photogram – bauhau – integrating design and industry ‘the salvation of photography comes from the experiment
• Christian Marclay – recreating sound – guns and roses, sonic youth, and two mix tapes 2008 – (also look up ‘the clock’)
• Impermanent image
• Lumen prints – Jerry Burchfield – Primal Images (2004) – doesn’t use developer – just uses moisture & heat from plant – colour goes onto black and white paper
• Christine Elfman – Even Amaranth (anthrotypes)
• Bihn Dahn – chlorophyll prints – printed on leaves – space around negative gets bleached out

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Photography and memory

Do we record as we’d like to remember?

 

Old Media – NAGRA 4.2

NAGRA – in Polish means “will record.”

At the time of its inception, the NAGRA machine was prized for being small, lightweight and portable, in addition to being a high quality audio recording device. By todays standards, early NAGRA machines are both enormous and obscenely heavy. 

NAGRA 4.2 – replaced the NAGRA IV, in 1969.

The NAGRA 4.2 used magnetic tape as its recording medium. In contrast to modern digital recorders, which convert sound’s analog waveforms into a digital reproduction through discrete numbers, the NAGRA 4.2 used magnetic tape to record as it moved at a constant speed over a recording head. An electrical signal equivalent to the sound being recorded is sent to the recording head, which creates a pattern of magnetisation upon the tape which is analogous to the signal, and therefore the audio being recorded. 

 

The Archive

On Why We Use Pencils and Other Thoughts on the Archive

 

Aside from the evident bias within the article, as it extols the virtues of physical archives whilst largely dismissing the digital archive, this afterword addressing the notion that archives trace the power structures of history. The history that is accessible through traditional archives represents a relatively small demographic, of those privileged enough to produce such documents. In this way, the rifts of missing information in archives directly represent the hierarchies and prejudices that were present at the time in question. In conceding the holes present in archives however, the author does not speak of the role of the internet in filling these holes in future archives. The value of the internet archive lies in its relative indifference to gender, race etc; as documentation can come from anyone. And although this means that some things may be documented badly, or with bias (as was also so in the past, but legitimised by publication in a book and a lack of further records of differing perspectives), the internet now allows the stories and perspectives of a far wider and more representative section of society than has ever before been present. As such, the digitally-based archives of the future will be more comprehensive, representative and consequently accurate than ever before.

This is not to discount physical archives, as their contents should be preserved as important historical artefacts. The film below documents what it means to close an archive and have its contents scattered.

 

The various RMIT libraries house a combination of new and old media artefacts; journal articles, books, magazines, films, online reproductions, and many other forms of media. All of this media however, is accessible through curated online search engines that catalogue each artefact, and therefore preserve its relevancy and ensure its continued use.

 

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• Rocking chairs were initially created by attaching ‘rockers’ (curved bands) to the base of a chair’s back legs.
• This particular rocking chair can be classified in the modern style, owing to its neutral colour palette, clean lines and relative minimalism.
• The most memorable style of rocking chair is the Bentwood rocking chair. Invented in 1860, this iconic chair drew from Renaissance and colonial-era artistry, and was further influenced by Greek and Roman designs, to create a lightweight, wooden chair, distinguished by its wooden arched back.

  

• The science and practice of creating holograms is called Holography.
• Holograms work, not through the printing of an image, but through the recording and reproduction of the light patterns created by the scattering of light off the original subject; thus, when lit and viewed from the correct angle, the image’s subject appears to be present.
• Due to the difference in the way light is recorded in a photograph versus a hologram (the former represents scattered light from a single point in the scene, while the latter records scattered light from every point in a scene on each point of the holographic recording), if you cut a photograph in half, each piece shows just half the image; however, if you cut a hologram in half, each piece continues to depict the entire image.